The Douglas County Sheriffs Office is committed to undertaking all efforts possible to quickly and safely locate missing persons. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office has developed procedures and participates in nationally recognized programs in the event a child goes missing. Two of these programs are the “Amber Alert” and “A Child Is Missing”.

Amber Alert Program:
To ensure an abducted child’s safe return, the DCSO has entered into a cooperative plan with Nebraska Broadcasters and other participating law enforcement agencies.

The plan, known as America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response or AMBER plan, is a protocol for alerting the public of a child abduction by using the Nebraska Emergency Alert System (EAS) to broadcast pertinent information regarding the abduction. The AMBER plan is not activated in every case of child abduction. Before activating the plan, Deputies responding to a non-family abduction must establish:

The child is under the age of 18 or has a proven mental or physical disability

There is probable cause to believe the child is in danger of serious bodily harm or death

There is sufficient descriptive information available concerning the suspected abductor

The plan is not intended for runaway or child custody situations

A Child is Missing Program: A Child Is Missing (ACIM) program enlists the assistance of the community by sending a personalized recorded message to area homes and businesses, via telephone (1,000 calls in 60 seconds), asking for help in searching for a missing person.

ACIM will prepare a recorded message that is automatically sent to the community asking citizens to help in the search by checking their premises. Assisted by satellite mapping, a target calling area is chosen based on where the person was last seen and a call database is selected from a data bank. After becoming aware of a missing person, citizens can then contact the Sheriff’s Office to provide tips and sightings.